So As I was trying to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, I found a women’s group to join. It was called “The Magic Parties”. When I first attended, I had no idea what to expect, but I knew they were a great group of women and it was what I needed and what I was looking for. The program centers around making “your next bold move”. I agonized over what my bold move was going to be. Do I want to go back to school and become a Coach – sure, but that is not in the budget and Coaching is a tough career path. From what I have seen most of the coaches are self-employed and I am not sure that I want to be self-employed. So for the last year, I have struggled with “what do I want to be when I grow up”?
So, at this year’s summer retreat, I decided, my “bold move” is determining my career path. Am I in the right job? If not, what is the right job for me? There are nine steps in this process. On step three of the nine steps, we had an exercise. It was to introduce yourself as your future self to another woman. “I’m a writer” screamed the little, but loud voice in my head. I am not sure, but I actually think I jumped, because the voice scared the crap out of me. I was expecting to introduce myself with a new job title but that is not what came out of this mouth.
A lot of what I have been learning is to listen to my inner voice. I think most of us have so much noise in our heads, we don’t give ourselves that chance to listen. So I guess I am going to be a writer. Now this is not something completely out of the blue for me. I have always enjoyed writing, but have not really had a chance to do it lately. And when I say lately, I mean years….Who has time?
I had dinner with a friend a month or so ago and we talked about writing and I decided I really wanted to start writing again. I pulled out some short stories that I had written and realized most of my writing was a third person journal of situations in my life. I guess that is blogging….
So writing it is. I was intrigued by this little voice that wanted to be heard. I tossed the career “thing” aside and went with “I am a writer”. As the day went on, I really believed that this was something I wanted to pursue. When I started thinking about writing a few months ago, I tried to think about what type of writing I wanted to do. I thought I wanted to do a “Sex and the City” style writing about life. I didn’t know if it would be in a magazine or a blog. Hell, I am not even really sure what a blog is. I do know that between my job as a Manager and my part time job as a hairdresser and just life in general, I have enough stories that make people laugh and wondered, can I make a living at this or at least pick up a few extra bucks. Maybe I don’t quit my day job, but maybe I make some extra cash….
So the retreat continues and we have an exercise to pair up with someone. The exercise is active listening. Your partner is to listen without comment. This is a hard exercise, especially for someone like me that REALLY likes to talk. The person sitting across from me was a woman that I had met a few times, but did not know very well. She is a psychic, so that was cool. For some reason, I was drawn to her for this exercise. So I went first. I explained to her that I started the day thinking my bold move was to find a career and out of nowhere this voice tells me I am a writer. She listens intently as I continue my story. Then she looked at me and said “you need to write comedy.” I was a little stunned. Now keep in mind the exercise that we are doing requires her to be quiet. At best we are acquaintances, so I can’t say that she has been in my company and thinks I am funny. This revelation of hers comes from a much higher place. We continue with the exercise and when we are done, she said it again – “You need to write comedy”. Ok.. I hear that, although I am not sure what I am going to do with that.
I sit with what I have been given by the universe and wonder how many times before have I ignored the universe? Well I cannot do that anymore. So I am a writer and what I write has some comedic value. Ok, that might go back to the “Sex and the City” themed “something”… article, blog, whatever it is that I am still mulling around with. So what is this blog thing? I need to figure this out.
I came home from the retreat and broke down and bought a new laptop. The one that I had was VERY old. A week passed and in a 24 hour period, the universe sent me a few signs that I know I need to listen to. When I got back from the retreat, I searched online for info on writing. I “liked” a group on Facebook. One night when I got home, there was a post on FB, “How do Bloggers make money”. Interesting, I thought. I saved it. I will read it later…
The next day, I called my friend Maria to see how she was doing. Her Father in law had just passed away. As we were talking, she asked me, “Has anyone ever told you that you are like Carrie from Sex and the City”. I laugh as I tried not to drive off the side of the road. “What?” I asked. “Are you saying you think I look like her?” (Because believe me – I do not!). She laughed, “No. Your personality and the way you tell a story.” She continued, “I was watching an episode over the weekend and you tell a story just like Carrie does.” Well if that wasn’t a sledgehammer across the head saying “Bitch – you had better be listening and do something with this.”
So here I am. I think this might be the first entry in a blog. But what the hell is a blog and how do I get these thoughts from MS word to being online and how the hell can I make money at this??? Or can I? Or is it just for fun? We’ll see….
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